Sourdough Lake

Drainage: Stillwater
Approaches: Goose Lake Jeep Trail — 3.3 mi, all off-trail; 799 ft up · From Anvil Lake — about 1.2 mi north · From Lake Aries — about 0.15 mi north

Elevation: 9,584 feet
Fish: Brook trout (FWP)
Coordinates: 45.11441, -109.96769
Bugs: Minimal on our visit

Getting there

Getting to the start is half the trip. The Goose Lake Jeep Trail needs an ATV, an off-road buggy or a genuinely capable off-road vehicle. Nothing standard will make it.

Your driving ends at the turnaround near the Goose Creek waterfall, where you park and shoulder packs. Just before the trail ends near the falls, look for a hard right that points you north. That is where the walking starts.

Park with the marten in mind. They are active in this basin and they chew wires and cables underneath parked machines. That is a risk to your ride home.

From the turnaround it is 3.3 miles to Sourdough, all off trail, with 799 feet of climbing.

The hike

Same steep climb out of the Anvil basin that every lake on this bench shares. It is rigorous and it is the whole difficulty of the route.

Once you clear the slope near Lake Aries the ground eases and Sourdough is only a short distance further north along the bench, less than two tenths of a mile. Aries and Sourdough sit close enough together to be one stop rather than two.

Sourdough is 2.6 acres at 9,584 feet. FWP lists brook trout. We fished it and did not catch anything.

Tips & safety

• The climb out of Anvil is the whole difficulty. Everything on the bench is easy walking once you are up.

• Navigation: no maintained paths anywhere up here. Route finding between all the bench lakes.

• Weather: high country with nothing to break a front. Come prepared for sustained cold rain rather than a passing shower.

• Fishing: FWP lists brook trout. We did not catch any. If you are here to fish, Spider is bigger water three tenths of a mile north.

• Camping: Sourdough sits at 9,584 feet on the lower end of the open bench, so slightly more sheltered than Spider or Fly above it but still without timber. At 2.6 acres the shoreline is short. Aries is a couple of minutes south if you want a second option nearby.